Men's Golf Headline

Sunday February 2, 2014Gators Begin Spring at the Sea Best Invitational

Returning
to tournament play for the first time since October, the Gator men’s golf squad
will tee-off the 2014 season at the Sea Best Invitational at TPC Sawgrass in
Ponte Vedra on Monday.

Florida won
back-to-back titles at the invitational in 2011 and 2012 but did not compete
there last spring. Former Gator and current Web.com Tour member, T.J. Vogel,
claimed individual medalist honors with a first place finish after shooting
even par (216) in 2012. The Gators finished +20 (884) to claim the tournament crown.

In 2011,
the Orange and Blue shot an impressive 6-under (858) as current Asian Tour
member Bank Vongvanij took first place after firing rounds of 69-69-73 (211) to
land at five-under. Four of the five Gators who competed finished inside the
top-10 as Florida won the tournament by 25 strokes.

The
Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was built in 1982 and is the permanent home of
the PGA Tour’s THE PLAYERS Championship. In 2012, Golf Digest ranked the
course ninth overall among “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.”

Tournament
Information: The
tournament will run from Feb. 3-4 and is hosted by Jacksonville University.

Format:
54-hole
stroke play where teams will play 36 holes on Monday and play the final 18 on
Tuesday.

Tee
Times:

Monday’s
First Round – 8:30 a.m.

Tuesday’s
Final Round – 8:00 a.m.

The Lineup:

·JuniorJ.D. Tomlinson (Gainesville, Fla.) led the
Gators on the green all fall, including back-to-back top-10 finishes at Shoal
Creek and the Crooked Stick Intercollegiate. Tomlinson’s T3 placing at Shoal
Creek was a career-best for the junior who shot a career-low round of 68. Tomlinson
concluded the fall leading the Orange and Blue with a 72.58 scoring average.

·Freshman
Ryan Orr (Belleair, Fla.) One of two freshmen to
compete in every tournament in the fall, Orr finished with the team’s
second-best scoring average (74.92). Orr had two top-20 finishes in the fall,
earning a T17 spot in the last two events for Florida.

·Freshman
Victor Tarnstrom (Nykvarn, Sweden) also
competed in every fall tournament for the Gators, recording his best finish at the
Shoal Creek Intercollegiate (T12). Tarnstrom fired a second-round 69 to finish
one-under (215). Tarnstrom finished the fall with 27 birdies, a team-best mark
shared with Tomlinson.

·Redshirt
Junior Santiago Gavino (San Luis Potosi, Mexico) will
compete for Florida in the five-man lineup for the first time this season.
Gavino participated in two fall events as an individual on each occasion.

·Sophomore
Richard Donegan (Okeechobee, Fla.)
makes his debut on the course donning the Orange and Blue. Donegan transferred
from Florida Atlantic University where he earned two individual medalist crowns
for the Owls last spring, taking first place honors at the Rice University
Intercollegiate and the Harmony Preserve Intercollegiate. Donegan fired a
tournament-low 66 in the second round at Rice.

Buddy’s Bite: “We’re excited to play. It’s
the first time since October and our guys have worked hard over the winter. I’m
expecting good results. We have some advantages over the other teams competing
and, being in Florida, we have the advantage of the weather as well. We can
benefit from that and with a lot of hard work hopefully parlay that into a good
finish.”

Eyeing the Competition: Florida
will face conference rivals Tennessee and No. 7 Texas A&M at the Sea Best
Invitational along with in-state foes Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast,
Jacksonville and North Florida.

The Field (Golf World/Nike Golf Division I Coaches’
Poll):

Cal Poly

East
Carolina

East
Tennessee State

Florida
Atlantic

FLORIDA

Florida
Gulf Coast

Jacksonville

Jacksonville
State

Liberty

North
Florida

Old
Dominion

Pepperdine

Tennessee

Texas
A&M (7)

USC-Upstate

Winthrop

Follow
the Gators: Play
will begin tomorrow as the field tees off at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring will be
available on GolfStat.com. A complete recap
with full results will be posted on GatorZone.com following the day’s play.